I have lost my OS ways, help!

fairy3

Morning all from miserable rainy spot - dampens everything and alters plans for outdoor activities.
Ginny well done on the negotiations on your furniture what a bargain and its amazing what a few cushions and a throw can do.
Pooky Good luck for your DD today must be very proud.

OS plans for today
NSD due to spree yesterday and more decluttering of the bedroom
Sort out stuff for ebay and CS along with rubbish now have empty bins.
Make plans for lunch with friend next week and defrost food for tea.
Have dreaded paperwork to sort out and banking stuff to look at bigger picture of retirement planning.
Hope everyone has a good day

F x

Caterina

Welcome Nats and allie23, please join in, the more the merrier!

Pooky I am writing this at midday (procrastinating the ironing), so by now you must have DD's results, hope they are great. Well done to your DD1 too!

You know what, life's too short to waste a sunny day ironing, I am off to have a walk outdoors then will have to do a bit of shopping, the ironing can wait till later or "mañana"!

joedenise

Have been OS today by washing the bedding from our motorhome (needed to do as going away next weekend!). They are all hanging on the line drying - will probably go and get them in shortly as they are defnitely looking dry.

Have had a lunch from freezer and dinner tonight for DH and I will also be from the freezer - a HM fish pie. They will definitely be at least a portion over for DH to take to work for his lunch tomorrow (hoping there will also be enough for my lunch but not banking on it!).

I'm trying to run down the freezers a bit at the moment so I can turn at least one off next week when I go on holiday. I think my menu plan uses quite a bit of meals or part meals from the freezer this week, so has also meant I have managed to keep the shopping a bit lower than usual this week (£23 somthing rather than the usual £40 or so).

Denise

joedenise

We only buy for immediate family. Once children come along the adults don't get presents but the kids do - until they're 18 and then it stops.

Denise

northwest1965

chirpycheap wrote: »

I found myself on Amazon today as I wanted to buy the Girl Called Jack for a birthday gift. It looked a good price until I realised that I would have to pay £2.70 postage because I hadn't spent over £10. I'm sure it's cheaper at Tesco so I'm holding off until I can check it out.

?

We use this site quite a lot
http://www.find-book.co.uk/book/A-Girl-Called-Jack-100-delicious-budget-recipes/0718178947.htm

there's also a find dvd site as well

CRANKY40

chirpycheap wrote: »

I found myself on Amazon today as I wanted to buy the Girl Called Jack for a birthday gift. It looked a good price until I realised that I would have to pay £2.70 postage because I hadn't spent over £10. I'm sure it's cheaper at Tesco so I'm holding off until I can check it out.

One of my big expenditures is Birthday and Christmas Gifts I was shocked when I worked out how much I pay per month on gift buying.

I come from a big family which is wonderful but blooming expensive.I spend £20 each on Mum and Dad (so with Christmas, Birthdays and Mother's/Father's day that's £120 p/a), £120 per year on my siblings and their partners, £180 p/a on all my nephews and one niece and their respective partners, £100 p/a on my son, £40 per year on my great nephews and £80 per year on gifts for friends. It all works out to around £55 per month on gift buying and I haven't even included Easter and gifts for my OH or myself in the calculations!

The problem is that the family keeps on growing and lovely as that is I keep adding another person to the list! I just don't know how to put a stop to it! You start buying a gift when the kids are little and the next thing they are grown men with wives and families!

I never get anything in return from my brother and his large brood but he has a reputation for being disorganised. I've been doing it for them for so long I just don't know how to stop or if I stop who should I miss out first and should I say anything beforehand?

We're one of those overly polite families that avoid conflict/offending at any cost but I fear that as our income has fallen and will continue to fall when we retire it really is time for me to 'woman up' or at this rate I'll be a hundred year old lady buying for a hundred great nieces and nephews!

How do other people manage the gift buying scenario without offending or breaking the bank?

Can't remember exactly, but I seem to think that the book is roughly £7 in Tesco. As for the present buying, you just announce like my dad did that you are only buying up to and including 18th birthdays and that included me and my sister who are no longer eligible for gifts. I see his point to be fair, anything we want we usually save up for and buy ourselves eventually. I however continue to do an Asda shop for him and his other half and have it delivered every Christmas. I spend about £80 as he lives in London and I don't so that is my way of knowing he has plenty in if the weather turns bad.

CRANKY40

Apologies for not posting much. As well as the school hols we have finally (after almost 5 years) scattered the late Mr Cranky's ashes and although it felt odd to have them in the house at first (child's choice) it also now feels odd not to have them. Some people are never happy are they :rotfl:

NSD here as the boy fancied a pyjama day so I've managed to catch up on the posts. It hasn't been a high spend summer holiday to be fair. He spent a week in his paddling pool in the garden when the weather was actually hot, then the week after that he had an intensive swimming course paid for by himself (he has a private pension from the M.O.D. because his dad was working for them when he died) and didn't fancy doing much and we've been swimming a few days since as that only costs £2. He is free during the school holidays thanks to our council and I pay £5 a year for a card that confirms I have a low income and lets me in at a reduced rate.

I did pay someone to come and build a raised bed on the weed covered land at the back of our shed. He charged £12 an hour and it took him 3 hours but it's an investment as this will be our forever home I think. I now have winter cabbage and sprouts planted there. I do love sprouts. I'd put some before and after photos on but I usually make a mess and have to have someone who knows how resize them, sigh. I'm now contemplating thornless blackberry bushes for the space at the side of the shed. It's a small space, but if I'm not getting ripped to shreds by thorns I can squeeze in. Maybe raspberries instead. I miss the raspberries. I did wonder if anything would actually grow, but then it dawned on me that I'd just pulled weeds out that were two feet high so I think we'll be OK. The rhubarb that I planted when we moved in at the end of May is doing really well. I shoved violas in against the fence as a rush job, but next year I'm thinking peas and beans. It would be a shame to waste all those fence posts when I could fix canes to them :rotfl: Luckily my next door neighbour is a 90 year old lady who was also widowed early so she is enjoying having us here and seeing what we're up to. I'll be sharing anything I manage to grow.

Caterina, you're doing really well. I had no kitchen for 3 months in 2010 and it made me cry a lot. It was worth it when it was finished.

Caterina

CRANKY40 thank you for your encouraging words, actually I do cry a fair bit! I have seriously contemplated packing my bags and going interrailing for a month, backpacking and bumming around Europe if the blasted thing does not get finished soon. But today we have been given the final date of 8th September. It all depends on DH buying all the ironmongery and drawers and bits, I shall believe it when I see it!

Today was an ok day, done laundry and babysitting trip to the allotment where the girls had a great time, then shopping I got some really special bread in w8rose, Poilane, lovely French sourdough, sliced, very rarely YSd but I struck gold and got a few pieces at a very good price. And the eggs as planned. Then met DH for a NS picnic near his workplace, then back home for a quick tidy up (no ironing again, got to do at least some tomorrow), then dinner out with my friend. Great meal and very reasonably priced, I owed it to her so no complaints there.

Good night.

joedenise

Having an OS day today! Won't be going out as DH has used the car today and I need to wait in for a parcel so will definitely be a NSD.

All meals from stores today - just about to go and get my breakfast (can't eat immediately after getting up - need to be up at least a couple of hours) - having a bacon & mushroom omlette, really looking forward to it as not had an omlette recently.

Have got another load of washing done so need to go and hang that out shortly.

Denise

Spendless

chirpycheap - I agree with the other comments, tell your family now whilst it's still August that you are cutting back and are only buying for the children of the family until a set birthday. You then knock off adult Neices and Nephews plus partners and only buy (if you want) for their children. If you continue with your adult siblings that's up to you. Collectively you are spending more on extended family members than immediate ones like your parents and own kids.

I think I may have hit on a way to make teen son help out with cooking meals, he wanted to bbq tuna steaks me and him had for tea. Shame I've only discovered this at the end of the summer.:D They were delicious though with new pots and roasted veg (peppers, onion, tomatoes).

Tomorrow for the first time in years, we don't have the kids all day. They are being taken to a relatives and from there son will be attending a gaming convention. Hubby is taking them tonight whilst I'm at a meal with friends for our quarterly catch up and picking them back up Sunday. Can't believe how excited I am about having the house to ourselves to get things done without a 'muuuuuummmm; in sight. :rotfl: